West, High

by thoughtsonthedead

A brief respite for the negativity and disappointment: join me, won’t you, in Anchorage for the rubber show of the Dead’s only Alaskan run. 6/20/80 may or may not be the best of the three; it may also place second or third: I’m not taking anyone else’s word for it, and though I’ve certainly listened to all three I have no memory of any of them besides that both the band and the announcers keep yelling at the crowd to stop smoking inside.

It’s a well-recorded 80’s show and I’m sure there a highlights and lyrical flubs, but who cares: listen to the Grateful Dead; their music makes people happy.

I will look into this immediately. I should warn everybody, however, that turnaround time has little meaning in my research. I took five years (almost to the day) to figure out the Marshall Brevetz thing. If the world has waited 35 or 50 years for some information, 36 or 51 isn’t going to matter.

My suspicion is that she didn’t go. Her religious, conservative parents would not have approved of this activity, and she was only 16. Still, Wasilla was just up the road from Anchorage, and this would have been the biggest event of the summer. So I have to think she knew about it, and turned down an opportunity to go (imagine the memoir, had it happened: “Alaska Man Says He Took Sarah Palin To Grateful Dead On Teenage Date!”

I have been listening to this. The set list is pretty typical, but Jerry’s voice is surprisingly sweet. The pressure of the road and Pall Malls seems to be off, and he doesn’t croak. Surprisingly touching after all these years.